The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream (No matter who you are, you can succeed.) is a non-sensical fallacy

involving the belief in America and Americans being exempt from human hedonism, greed and desire.

The idea of the American Dream is explored in depth in “The Great Gatsby”, and proves this point. The

novel explores the lives of many very different characters, such as poor characters like George Wilson,

characters of vast inherited wealth like Tom Buchanan, and characters of vast freshly-made wealth like

Jay Gatsby. They are portrayed, at the beginning of the story, to be as different as possible, but as the

story progresses, it becomes obvious how similar the character's situations are. This is all because of

the failure of the American Dream. Even though the Dream
guarantees them equal opportunity, each

character was disadvantaged by their own socio-economic status.

For example, George Wilson struggles his way though life barely able to make ends meet. This

is shown though the his “unprosperous and bare” (Fitzgerald, 27) garage, and his obvious need for

Tom's money when Tom threatens to “sell [the car] somewhere else” (28).
But because of the American

Dream, he should have the same equal opportunity as Tom, this is not the case, as Tom has the social

advantage of having connection, prestige and social graces which is required to succeed at Tom's high

level of society. Tom uses this power over George to get what he want's, in this case, his car sold and

George's wife. This makes it obvious that the American Dream is not working in George's favour.

Another example of the failure of the American Dream is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has new, freshly- made money, and did not come from a prestigious background. This means, that while he has immense

wealth, he does not have the prestige and social graces to fully integrate with upper-higher class

society. To fix this, Gatsby tries to change his behaviour so that he can seem to have social class and

values. In the story he has a pool he never swims in, constantly repeats “old-sport” (49) as to seem to

have British heritage, and makes up stories of time he spent in the war. Though as much as he tries,
he

will never be able to buy prestige and class, thus putting him at a disadvantage when compared to the

Buchanans. (Who have inherited their money along with their social graces.) This also mean's that he'll

never be able to succeed in getting in a relationship with Daisy, which was his goal from the start.

Because he'll never succeed in making this dream a reality, Gatsby's situation is another example of the

failure of the American Dream.

Characters like George and Gatsby are very similar in how they operate. Both are trying to

achieve happiness, but both are stopped by the social requirements of society. This is sadly an example

of the failure of the American Dream because they are both being denied their right to success as

guaranteed by the American Dream.

In summary, “The Great Gatsby” is a story which explores the idea of the American Dream, and

debunks the myth of America being a place of boundless potential by giving the reader a mirror of

sorts, that reflects today's society in the character's it portrays.